LAS14
LAS14's JournalDid Amy Sherald speak? I tuned in too late.
I'd love to know what the artist had to say about the Michelle portrait. Certainly Wiley's remarks were very important in that he explained the flora. (Check other posts for that).
Thank goodness for CSPAN. The artist Wiley's speech should not have been missed. nt
Do DUers know about the NDRC? (poll)
I'm curious as to how well the NDRC (National Democratic Redistricting Committee) has made itself known to people like us. For those of you who don't know about it. The NDRC is a group formed by Obama and Erick Holder to attack gerrymandering. Here's some good information from a different thread.
Wed Feb 7, 2018, 02:51 AM
RandySF (16,292 posts)
Obama/Holder Group Targets All-G.O.P. States to Attack Gerrymandering
Mr. Holder said in an interview that the group was chiefly determined to deny Republicans so-called trifectas in state governments — places where a single party controls the governorship and an entire legislature, as Republicans do in Ohio and Florida, among other critical battlegrounds.
The group’s list of high-priority states includes most of the critical states in presidential elections. Mr. Obama, who has made redistricting a focus of his attention since leaving office, plans to visit some of those states in 2018, and Mr. Holder reviewed his strategy with the former president in Washington on Monday, aides said.
States at the top of the just-finalized target list include traditional purple states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where Republicans can currently design maps without Democratic input, and others — including Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada — where Democrats have significant influence in government but must defend it in the 2018 elections.
“From my perspective, success is if you break a trifecta,” Mr. Holder said, adding: “I don’t think that in December of 2018, you measure success only by whether you have assumed control of a particular state.”
Because of the broad authority Republicans hold in many states, and the favorable maps many Republican lawmakers have drawn for themselves, Mr. Holder said his group would spend money wherever Republicans appear to be vulnerable. In Ohio, that will mean pursuing not only the governorship but also the offices of state auditor and secretary of state, both of which play a role in shaping congressional maps. In Wisconsin and Florida, Mr. Holder’s group will help Democrats compete for the governorship and the State Senate majority.
In North Carolina, where there is a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, but Republicans have control of the legislature by vast margins, the redistricting committee hopes to shave seats off the current Republican supermajorities.
Mr. Holder said he would campaign aggressively himself in some of these races, beginning with an election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring. Both he and Mr. Obama will focus heavily on mobilizing African-American voters, Mr. Holder said.
The strategy has the potential to inject a new volume of money, on the Democratic side, into typically low-profile elections. Mr. Holder said the group has raised more than $16 million out of a previously announced $30 million goal, but it has not disclosed how much cash it has on hand.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/us/politics/democrats-gerrymandering-election-maps.html
Reply 13 in the thread above shows a list of the offices currently targeted by the NDRC. I tried to cut and paste it here, but the paste is the right size, but empty. Can anyone explain that, just for curiosity?
Question submitted by LAS14
Ideas about why Porter resigned?????
This year has been one "Rubicon" after another. The thing that defines it is that NOTHING matters! So how come this mattered? How come the White House got swept up in the MeToo wave? Don't get me wrong. I'm tickled that it did. But puzzled too.
Does anyone know what caused Rand Paul to give up? nt
Do you see something wrong with this headline? (snow in Chicago).
Interesting angle on Russian meddling and on Twitter itself.
Before I start, I'm NOT a troll. I'm reporting a story that I found interesting. The story does NOT suggest that the Russians didn't try to help Trump.
But here's what was new to me. An expert on these kinds of things (whose name I can't remember - on CNN or PBS) who claimed long experience watching Russian cyber-warfare, said that one of their strategies is to stir up any kind of dissension in a society (not just U.S., but we already knew that). They send out bots to stir up feelings, including movements like Black Lives Matter. One of the main points he wanted to make is that Twitter is completely capable of distinguishing bots from real people but won't do it because the more twitter traffic, the more important Twitter seems. Apparently they have not yet made a profit (????? - how do companies survive????), and are hoping to get bigger and bigger in hopes of one.
Did Pelosi get any bathroom breaks?? nt
Where can I complain about NBCSports and Nissan?
When we're away from home we can no longer get the Celtics on the computer via plain old Comcast. Instead we have to use NBCSports.com. We still need our Comcast/Xfinity account to get there. But a third of the screen horizontally is taken up with two static Nissan banners, and a 3rd vertically by other ads. It sure is making me HATE NISSAN! How can I best express my anger???? Have any of you experienced this?
tia
las